We're a massive ocean away, why would we be entitled to occupying their land?

The US doesn't need solid roots in the middle east, it is literally an entire ocean away, has the top 4 air forces in world(well, officially Russia is #3, but that probably is no longer the case and definitely won't be by time the Ukraine invasion ends), the 2nd best/possibly the best Navy in the world, the 2nd largest stockpile of Nukes(and likely the largest stockpile of actually functional ones), not to mention a missile defense system that probably puts even the Iron Dome to shame(after all, the I.D was primarily funded by the US).

Literally the only physical foreign threat the US needs to truly worry about is small scale terrorist-attack style operations, and all out MAD nuclear war. Literally no foreign country is touching us in a traditional war.

No, the only reason the US needs solid roots in the middle east is so it can advance it's imperialist interventionist goals. You're absolutely right, Israel is the US's ally. Where you are wrong though is believing we should support them, rather than ending our alliance with them.

Put it this way: An alliance between two countries is basically like a friendship between two people. If you found out your friend, your best friend even, was a remorseless serial killer, how would you react? Would you rightly dump them as a friend and hope they rot in prison, or would you be like "sure, I realize they killed all those innocent people, but they're my friend! I HAVE to support them no matter what! Besides, they totally killed some bad people too, so it's justified."?

"kinda scummy" are you serious? Have you seen the videos of mosques, hospitals and refugee campa getting flattened by bombs?

Why do you want to be an ally with a nation that does this?

I'd just add that 'Zionism' means many different things to many different people. To some, it's advocating that all Palestinians be forcefully removed from the region in support of the creation of a kind of Greater Israel. To others, it's the mere acknowledgement that Israel is a thing that exists and that all Jews should not be forcefully removed from the region in support of the creation of a Greater Palestine.

Depending on who's using the term, it's essentially either "thing I like" or "thing I don't like", and I wouldn't read very much into it over examining actual specific policy.